ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to challenge, through the analyses of the enormous variety of representative institutions that existed within the Spanish monarchy, the classic axiom that claims that increasingly strong royal power and the development of urban autonomy are essentially incompatible. The Spanish monarchy, which included some of the most intensely urbanised regions in Europe, was not a homogenous community of citizens but a progressive aggregation of cities whose inhabitants, despite being vassals of the same king, identified first and foremost with their respective cities and spaces of political representation. Within this complex political structure, a veritable polycentric monarchy of urban republics, the cities, which preserved a political culture with a distinct republican predisposition, were the key forum for the negotiation and renovation of political consensus between the king and a complex variety of corporate and local powers.
